The Stone Arch
by SkittleFerret
Summary: If everyone's to busy with their own lives, will they notice that Rikku has vanished? And who is this strange dark haired woman?  -I have rated this M as I plan to have quite gore battles and possibly more-


**Disclaimer:**

Final Fantasy X and X-2 is property of Square-Enix. They own all rights to the franchise and I do not make a profit from any of my writing, I only do this for fun.

**A.N: **

This is an idea I've had playing around in my head for a long time, however it is a crossover with FF7 and FFX-2. The main characters are Rikku and Tifa, But they will each have their on fic, so in order to get the full story, you will need to read both.

**Chapter One**

'**Through the Looking Glass'**

The dull thud of boots slapping against the stone floor echoed and bounced off the walls, clouds of sand blew across the floor. The dull thuds stopped as the gust of sand passed, followed by a howl as the wind from outside blew into the temple.

"Looks like a sandstorm..." Reaching up to her ear, she clicked a device, "I'm gonna stay here and have a look 'round. There's a sandstorm coming so you better get to clear skies."

There was crackle at first and what seemed like a few words, but they couldn't be made out.

"RIKKU! You are NOT staying in that temple all by yourself!"

Rikku sighed to herself. Couldn't Brother just treat her like an adult! She _was_ 18 now.

"Brother! I'll be fine! Doesn't look like there are any fiends down here anyway. Beside's it'll be just til' the storm has passed." She hoped he'd just give in. She didn't want to damage the ship in the storm and she knew Brother wouldn't either. Shinra would talk sense into him in the end.

"Fine! But I do not like it! We will be back tomorrow to get you!"

Rikku smiled to herself. The storm seemed like a blessing to her. Since she'd helped destroy Vegnagun, she'd been a lone Gullwing. Yuna had stayed in Besaid with Tidus and Paine had decided to return to Nooj and the gang, leaving Rikku as the only Gullwing left. Brother seemed to think that meant Rikku could do the work of all three of them herself.

The device in her ear crackled again and she knew that they had left to escape the storm. Leaning against the wall, she smiled to herself again, With the eternal calm and the death of Vegnagun, there really wasn't anything exciting enough left to do but sphere hunting, and naturally Rikku had done that. Sliding down the wall, she pulled some food from one of the pouches on her belt. Nibbling on it slightly, she realised it was all the food she had and so put it away. After all she didn't really know how long the storm would last.

Leaning her head against the wall, she yawned. Maybe she'd take just a small nap. Closing her eyes, she found sleep came to her quickly.

-x-

The wind howled, whipping her hair in all directions as she rubbed her face. Stupid Rikku. Falling asleep with no cover when she knew a sand storm was coming. Her sleep had been abruptly disturbed when the wind had whipped her hair about, causing her hair beads to attack her.

The air was colder and she could only assume it was now quite late in the day. Making sure she had everything, she set off again. She headed down the stone corridor and round the first corner. She hadn't lied when she'd said there were no fiends down here, but that was only because she _hadn't _seen any.

What stood before her, shook her. It appeared to be a sandworm, but much smaller. It was still very young. Rikku wasn't quite sure if that was the reason, but it didn't look like any sandworm she'd seen. It's colouring was different, as was it's mouth. Whatever this thing was, it had seen her. What she assumed was worm saliva dripped from it's mouth as it slowly glided across the floor towards her. Now she needed to act and fast. This little worm... she could beat this. But not if mummy decided to return.

The worm shot towards her, it's mouth open ready to engulf her but she'd dodged to the left, pulling out her twin blades, she spun them both round in her palms before plunging them into the soft flesh of the worm's side.

It made some sort of gurgling noise, Rikku knew she'd hit a good spot, but before she could react, the worm bolted and thrusted it's full weight into her, sending her crashing into the wall. Blood oozing from the wound on the worm's side, it spun round quickly before charging straight towards her.

Reaching into one of the many pouches on her belt, she pulled out a grenade. Pulling the pin out with her teeth, she threw the grenade, aiming for the worms mouth, before ducking and rolling to the side out of the worm's path.

"Fuck sake! This thing sure can move!" she hissed to herself as it slammed into the wall, only to recover a second later and charge at her once more.

Dust clouds filled the air as the worm crashed about trying to reach it's target. Luckily for Rikku she had been wearing her famed thief dress sphere and so was able to move quick enough to dodge all the attacks so far.

It then, only occurred to Rikku that the grenade she'd thrown had gone off. Cursing Brother and his inability to make grenade's that actually worked she pulled out another. Smirking as she noted it was one of her own designs. Dropping it at her feet, she looked to the worm, that had already started it's next charge. Rikku counted to 5 in her head as the worm grew closer and in that last second, she saw a small crack in the wall. Possibly big enough for her to get through. The worm was barely feet away from her when she finally dodged the attack, heading straight for the crack in the wall, she pushed a small button next the pouch she had taken the grenade from. Again she counted down the timer in head.

3. She heard the worm crash into the wall, dust and sand filled the air once again

2. The worm was turning, scrapping debris across the floor. The crack was just out of reach, just a few more feet

1. Rikku dived for the crack, she hit the wall hard, her fingers grasped at the broken wall and pulled herself inside.

"Boom.." She muttered to herself looking at the cracked wall. The worm crashed it, knocking a few pieces of stone clean off. Pressing itself as hard as it could to get in, a sound much like a whimper erupted from it's throat as though it knew of what was to come. A bright white light exploded behind it, Rikku ducked, closed her eyes tightly and clasped her hands over her ears.

After the initial explosion, all that could be heard was the shrill whines coming from the worm. Rikku stood, letting her arms drop to her sides. Opening her eyes she looked to the worm still in the gap of the cracked wall. Blood dripping down the wall into a pool on the floor. It's cries echoed in the small room. Rikku actually felt sorry for it. It wasn't the worm's fault that she had wandered into it's nest. It was only survival. Still, she couldn't bare to watch it die whining, taking her daggers she moved towards the worm. Raising them she took one last look at the poor beast before she plunged her daggers into the soft tissue that was it's head. Forcing them to go as far as she could muster. Blood splattered across her as the beast jolted and struggled.

It's jolting became weaker and it's cries quieter until at last the poor beast moved no more. Rikku withdrew her blades and took a moment to look at the dead worm. Paine had teased her once for caring how a fiend died and waited for the usual burst of pyreflies to remove it's corpse and the smell of burnt flesh.

Her brow furrowed. Why hadn't it dispersed? Something strange was going on here. It confused her. Turning on her heel, she put the worm behind her. She couldn't look at it anymore. The sight mixed with the smell was turning her stomach. This was when she noticed a rather large stone arch. The stone carved beautifully. All down the right side were angelic faces. A large feathered wing spread across the top to make half the arch. The feathered wing was greeted by a more rough bat-like wing which made up the other half and met with demonic, snickering faces down the left pillar.

As disturbing as this was, it was still quite beautiful. But what amazed Rikku the most was that it's centre was... well reflective. Like looking into a pond. Walking towards it, she watched her reflection and noted a red patch on her head. Reaching up to touch it, she found blood. She must have cut herself in the worm attack.

Looking back to her reflection, she noticed it waver slightly. Moving closer, she lifted her finger to touch it. It was solid, but again her reflection wavered. It started with her finger. Looking closer she realised her reflection's skin was growing quite pale. With a look of confusion, she turned her attention to her reflection's head. The shape of her face changed and her eyes grew darker, as did her hair. Her build changed slightly until she was just slightly taller and her chest swelled. Her clothes changed aswell, now showing her in a black outfit. Removing her hand from the glass she looked at herself. SHE was still sun-kissed, blonde and... flat chested. But where her reflection was but a moment ago, now stood a completely different woman.

Still confused, Rikku bit her lip. The reflection how ever did not. A ringing started in her ears, loud and painful, clasping her hands over them, she doubled over in pain. Her vision started to blur and the last thing she saw was the little angelic faces twisting into wicked smiles and the demon faces crying for they knew what was to happen.

**A.N**

Ok. So that's the first chapter so far for this side of the story. Please can you tell me what you think and if you didn't quite understand anything. Thanks! I will update again soon.


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